Instead of being at the beach or camping, a group of athletes from the Connaught Skating Club have been busy indoors this summer preparing for a competition in sunny California.
Ten skaters left yesterday for this weekend's Glacier Falls Summer Classic in Anaheim where they will be up against some of the best up-andcoming skaters in the U.S.
This is the second straight year Connaught is participating in the event as coaches Keegan and Eileen Murphy decided to bring more of their top skaters south for what serves as a a springboard heading into the competitive season this fall.
"This will be a good experience for them," explained Keegan Murphy. "Many will be skating in front of international judges for the first time and this will open their eyes a bit of what type of competition is out there. This is definitely not about placing or peak-ing. It will help this group ready for our next summer competition (the B.C. Summer Skate in Burnaby).
Among the travel-ing contingent is reigning national junior men's national champion Mitchell Gordon. Since his big win last January, the 16-yearold has busy working on adding new elements to his skill set for the coming season when he will make the leap up to the senior men's level. His repertoire of jumps now includes a triple axle which is a significant breakthrough according to his coach.
"It's a massive hurdle and a very exciting development," said Murphy.
"It usually takes six to 12 months for a skater to learn it and for Mitchell to do it in this amount of time, at his age, is really quite remarkable."
Gordon is not expected to perform the jump in Anaheim but it will be part of his program when he represents Canada at a Junior Grand Prix event next month in Austria.
Other skaters headed to California includes Larkyn Austman who recently joined Connaught full-time after winning bronze in Novice Ladies at Nationals. Also competing are Amy Li, Amanda Feltham, Kurtis Schreiber, Shawn Cuevas, Danica Vangsgaard, Rachel DeMello, Megan Kan and Madge Sheung.
